Flyers remain winless after blowing 2 goal lead to the Sharks

(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Despite a better effort for the Flyers last night in San Jose, the result was still the same. The Flyers, who had a 3-1 lead at one point, lost 5-4 to the Sharks in overtime. While the Flyers did manage to earn a point against one of the best teams in the league, it's already the time of the season where they can ignore moral victories and only be happy with actual W's.

The game was filled with both positives and negatives for the Flyers.

Positives:

-The reunited Simon Gagne/Danny Briere/Mike Knuble line played well with Briere scoring 2 goals and Gagne having several good scoring chances. It seems like whoever Briere plays with continues to have a hot hand.

-Antero Niittymaki, despite giving up 5 goals, had a good game. None of the goals were his fault except one where he gave up a juicy rebound to Joe Pavelski in the third period. Niitty made several big stops throughout the game, including an amazing diving save in the third. He faced a barrage of 45 shots and saved 40 of them, basically if he could see it, he stopped it.

-Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn played great as they were reunited as the top defensive unit. The rest of the defensemen? Not so much.

-You could tell the Flyers were making a concerted effort to play the Sharks tough. They had a bunch of hits and got into several scraps after the whistle.

Negatives:

-The Flyers defense is in shambles. Besides the top two, the Flyers are relying on an 18 year old, a guy who didn't play in the NHL last year and 2 AHL-quality players. Luca Sbisa and Ossi Vaananen have played well at times but they should be the teams 3rd pairing of D-men, not 2nd. Andrew Alberts and Steve Eminger are not NHL caliber players and they made a ton of mistakes against the Sharks. The Flyers need to do something to shore up their D because Randy Jones and Ryan Parent aren't coming back any time soon. They need to make a trade to bring in someone who can be a top 4 defensemen, even if it means trading one of their better forwards.

-Too many penalties. The Flyers had 27 penalty minutes on the night, including 11 minors and 1 fighting major. They gave the Sharks a ton of power play chances and they did well to kill some of them but they still gave up three power play goals.

-Steve Downie needs to go play for the Phantoms for a while. He had two penalties on the night, including a dumb slash, and had only 5 minutes of ice time. He needs to get his head straightened out with the Phantoms.

The Flyers have 3 days off now before they face the Sharks again, this time in Philadelphia. It will be interesting to see if the team makes any personnel changes or if they continue to tinker with the lines to find the right combination. You can only re-arrange the lines so much before you realize that maybe this team simply needs some new players. We'll see if they come from the minors or if they come via a trade.